[gps-talkusers] GPS on a bike

  • From: Michael May <mikemay@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "GPS-talkusers-freelists.org" <GPS-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2006 09:21:07 -0700

This weekend, my brother visited and we took both of our custom tandems for a 
30 mile ride to and from Winters, just West of Davis. This reminded me not only 
of the fun of cycling but also of using the GPS along the way.

Most serious bike riders have an electronic device that gives them lots of good 
information like how far you have ridden and  how fast you are going. We can of 
course get that information and a lot mor on the Sendero GPS.

I really enjoyed the distraction of knowing what intersections were coming up, 
how far to the next turn and how far to the destination as well as knowing our 
speed. We made pretty good time because I hated to have our speed drop below 14 
miles per hour. Occasionally we would get up to the mid 20s. It is pretty flat 
around these parts.

I rode on one tandem with my wife and my brother rode the other tandem with my 
12 year-old son. We compared notes on the speed calculation between his bicycle 
calculator and my GPS. His unit displayed one mile per hour faster than my GPS. 
Our distance traveled calculation was pretty similar.

One practical issue was how to wear my PK. I ended up hooking the shoulder 
strap through my belt so the unit was on my waste and it wouldn't swing around. 
I used my bluetooth earpiece, which worked out wonderfully. I may dig out a 
chest harness I used to use skiing for radios as it might be easier to feel the 
Braille display if the PK was mounted higher on my body. I know Gil Lutz has a 
special bracket for his VoiceNote on the handle bars of his tandem and I might 
try something like that too.

This mode of travel also made me realize that we needed a new type of route 
calculation. I wasn't quite pedestrian and not quite vehicular. What I really 
needed was to be able to calculate vehicular type routes but a route that 
avoided freeways. This could be handy too for those times when you know a 
freeway has a lot of traffic and you want to take surface streets. We'll add 
this feature request to the wish list.

Mike
 






Michael G. May

CEO Sendero Group

Developers and distributors of BrailleNote GPS 
Distributing BrailleNote, VoiceNote, Talks, Miniguide, The Tissot Silen-T 
tactile watch, and the ID Mate bar code reader 

MikeMay@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.SenderoGroup.com

1-888-757-6810, Fax (530) 757-6830, Mobile (530) 304-0007 
Sendero Group, LLC
1118 Maple Lane, Davis, CA 95616-1723, USA

Latitude, 38 33 9.239 North
Longitude, 121 45 40.145 West


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